Lots of Justice-Making Activity in Minnesota!

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Lately I've been to a lot of strategizing and planning meetings on defeating next November's "marriage amendment" – the ballot initiative which will basically ask Minnesotans to enshrine discrimination into the State Constitution by banning civil marriage rights for same-sex couples.

Despite the fact that, as the cartoon above reminds us, same-sex couples still have setbacks to overcome before marriage equality is achieved, I have to say that at all the meetings I've attended, there's been an inspiring sense of hope that Minnesota may well be the first state to defeat this type of ballot initiative. Wouldn't that be something!? But we can't be complacent! There's still much organizing and educating and rallying to be done.

Local Catholics, I'm pleased to report, are in the thick of such justice-making activity – and have been for quite some time! (See, for instance, here, here, here and here.) Catholics for Marriage Equality MN is about to launch its new website – one that will contain all sorts of timely and useful information, resources and action steps. We're also preparing to premiere at the Riverview Theater our "video series" – one that involves five short "vignettes" of LGBT Catholics and their loved ones sharing stories of faith, marriage and family. They are incredibly powerful testimonies – destined to change hearts and minds for sure!

The series will eventually be posted on a special YouTube channel and distributed as a DVD. Parish contacts are currently being identified and signed-up to help get the word out about the DVD and its accompanying discussion guide to Catholics throughout the state.

Other organizations have been very busy too. Minnesotans United for All Families, for instance, was recently at the State Fair, distributing all kinds of literature – including, I'm happy to report, information about Catholics for Marriage Equality MN (which is not surprising given that we are a member organization of this coalition).

Meanwhile, OutFront MN is set to launch a faith-based effort to bring marriage equality to Minnesota. Catholics for Marriage Equality MN will be part of this effort. OutFront MN is also planning a series of community action trainings throughout the state. Following is how OutFront describes these trainings, and a list of places at which they'll be taking place.

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Community Action Trainings

Minnesota can be the first state in the country to defeat an anti-marriage amendment!

We're going to do it the Minnesota way: the largest grassroots campaign this state has ever seen. That's why OutFront Minnesota and Minnesotans United for all Families are teaming up to put on more than a dozen trainings in every corner of the state more than a year before the first votes are cast!

That's where you come in! Whether this is the first time you've ever cared about politics or you're a seasoned organizer we're ready to help you get to work.

You can expect to come out of the training with the skills, tools and confidence to talk to your family, friends coworkers and neighbors about the anti-marriage amendment.

Minneapolis
Tuesday, September 13 at 6–8pm
Location: Sabathani Community Center

Moorhead
Saturday, September 17 at 10am–12pm
Location: First Congregational UCC

North Metro Suburbs
Tuesday, September 20 at 6–8pm
Location: TBD

Duluth
Saturday, September 24 at 10am–12pm
Location: TBD

Saint Paul
Tuesday, September 27 at 6–8pm
Location: TBD

Rochester
Thursday, September 29 at 6–8pm
Location: TBD

Mankato
Saturday, October 1 at 10am–12pm
Location: TBD

South Metro Suburbs
Tuesday, October 4 at 6–8pm
Location: TBD

Alexandria
Thursday, October 6 at 6–8pm
Location: TBD

Bemidji
Saturday, October 8 at 10am–12pm
Location: TBD

Saint Cloud
Tuesday, October 11 at 6–8pm
Location: SCSU

Marshall
Saturday, October 15 at 10am–12pm
Location: TBD

Minneapolis
Sunday, October 16 at 10am–12pm
Location: TBD

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Javen Swanson: Don't Get Disappointed, Get Organized
In the Struggle for Marriage Equality, MN Catholics are Making a Difference by Changing Hearts and Minds
Sharing the Good News of Marriage Equality at the Basilica Block Party

Quote of the Day

Sexual abuse in seminaries and monasteries is a generational and systemic problem. It is the very point Richard Sipe and others have been making for decades. It is not a gay problem so much as it is a cultural problem. In Africa this culture is expressed as a convent problem. It's what happens when power is coupled with truncated sexual maturity. Sexual expression becomes an issue of power over dependent others. It becomes a twisted form of both a rite of passage and a form of hazing. This whole notion of the influence of a 'lavender mafia' is an attempt to dress up a far more mundane and universal phenomenon. It is a problem that leaves a ton of wreckage in it's wake and it's also one uni sex patriarchal societies seem loathe to address. As one priest told me, the seminary was some 'thing' I survived. It was not some 'where' I thrived.

– Colleen Kochivar-Baker
"A Very Disconcerting Story from Down Under"
Enlightened Catholicism
September 11, 2011

Recommended Off-site Links:
Confessions of an Ex-Seminarian – Gregory Flannery (Killing the Buddha, August 15, 2002).
Seminaries and the Sexual Abuse Crisis – Katarina M. Schuth (America, March 22, 2004).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
The Real Crisis
Fr. Thomas Doyle: "There is Something Radically Wrong With the Institutional Catholic Church"
Now We Know
The Roman Catholic Pyramid is Crumbling
An Offering of Ashes
Report: Homosexuality No Factor in Abusive Priests
Donohue's "Blame the Gays" Tactic Refuted by John Jay Study Researcher
Bill Donohue's Homophobic Claims Refuted by Bishops' Study
Roger Haight on the Church We Need
Rescuing Catholicism
Quote of the Day – July 18, 2011
Quote of the Day – January 19, 2011
Quote of the Day – December 22, 2010
Quote of the Day – April 1, 2010

Image: Photographer unknown.

Before (and After) the Poison

Today is the tenth anniversary of what has come to be known as "9/11" – the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

I remember once reading that Marianne Faithfull’s song “Before the Poison” was inspired in part by the shock of these attacks and how they changed things irrevocably for many people and communities. I share today this song from Faithfull’s 2004 album of the same name, along with links to various articles and reflections on 9/11 – ten years on.

I dedicated this post to everyone, everywhere, whose life has been irrevocably changed because of some traumatic event – the “poison out of nowhere” in Faithfull’s song.

. . . Before the poison
I'd lost my fear.
Maybe too happy,
to even care.
Safe in my dreams,
couldn't see the fall coming on,
coming from nowhere,
my name to call.

No more to say,
nothin's coming my way.
No you, no me,
no more, how can it be?
Nowhere to run,
out of nowhere, poison . . .

Recommended Off-site Links:
Ten Years Later, It’s Time to ‘Broaden the Context’ – David Sirota (TruthDig.com, September 8, 2011).
The Sad Legacy of September 11, 2001 – John R. MacArthur (The Ottawa Citizen, September 10, 2011).
Many Things to Mourn on September 11 – Steff Yorek (CommonDreams.org, September 10, 2011).
Why 9/11 Changed Nothing – Paul Harvey (Religion Dispatches, September 7, 2011).
Bin Laden’s Unintended Legacy – William Pfaff (TruthDig.com, September 6, 2011).
The Legacy of 9/11: An Institutionalization of Terror at Home and Abroad – Chip Pitts (CommonDreams.org, September 10, 2011).
9/11: Al Qaeda's Project for Ending the American Century Succeeded – Jim Lobe (CommonDreams.org, September 9, 2011).
A Dark Decade for Civil Rights and Liberties – Kanya D'Almeida (Inter Press Service, September 9, 2011).
9/11 and the Imperial Mentality – Noam Chomsky (Reader Supported News, September 6, 2011).
Imperial Delusions: Ignoring the Lessons of 9/11 – Robert Jensen (CommonDreams.org, September 9, 2011).
The Legacy of 9/11 and the War on Intellectuals – Stephen Zunes (TruthOut.org, September 10, 2011).
A Pie for Peace: Tenth Anniversary of 9/11 Chance to Reflect, Bake and Resist – Frida Berrigan (WagingNonviolence.org, September 9, 2011).
Unexpected Legacy Left by Gay Hero of Flight 93 – Yahoo! News (September 2, 2011).
Fallen 9/11 Priest Emerges as An Icon for Gay Catholics – Daniel Burke (Religion News Service via The Progressive Catholic Voice, September 1, 2011).
Chile: The Other '9/11' – Tony Saunois (SocialistWorld.net, September 10, 2011).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• In Mychal Judge’s Heart “There Was Room for Everyone”
• Karen Armstrong on the 9/11 Attacks: A “Flagrant and Wicked Abuse of Religion”
• Rebecca Solnit on How 9/11 Should Be Remembered
• 9/11: Seven Years On
• Remembering September 11 and Its Aftermath
• Let’s Also Honor the ‘Expendables’

Javen Swanson: “Don’t Get Disappointed, Get Organized”

My friend Javen Swanson, pictured at right with his husband Oby Ballinger at July’s Basilica Block Party, is Field Organizer with OutFront Minnesota. He’s an incredibly effective community organizer and an all-round inspiring individual. Recently he posted an important article on the OutFront MN website about the role of people of faith in the pro-marriage equality movement and the September 19 launch of a multi-faith, broad, and inclusive coalition committed to inspire, educate, organize and mobilize people of faith to achieve justice for all people.

Catholics for Marriage Equality MN is part of this exciting coalition, which goes by the name of the Faith Organizing Community. In our Mission Statement we note that as a coalition of people of faith, our activities "arise from, but are not limited to, the movement to win freedom for all loving couples to marry in Minnesota."

I hope you can join us on September 19 for the official launch of the Faith Organizing Community. To inspire you to do so, here is Javen’s September 8 OutFront Minnesota article.

_________________________

Don’t Get Disappointed, Get Organized
By Javen Swanson

Field Organizer, OutFront Minnesota
September 8, 2011

If you’re a pro-LGBT person of faith, you probably share my disappointment every time you read a news story portraying religious people as universally opposed to LGBT equality. I am a gay man who is preparing for ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a Protestant Christian denomination that ordains gay and lesbian clergy and recognizes same-gender marriages. I worship in a church that welcomes LGBT people, and invites and expects us to participate fully in the life of the congregation. I studied at a seminary where students had more interesting things to discuss than whether God loves LGBT people.

In my experience, people of faith are pretty supportive. Some of them are even shining examples of what fierce advocates for LGBT equality can be. So I wasn’t really surprised when a recent poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute found strong support for marriage equality among people of faith. Majorities of Americans affiliated with a non-Christian religions (67%), Catholics (52%), and white mainline Protestants (51%) favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally. Even more people of faith think gay and lesbian relationships should be accepted by society, including most non-Christian religiously affiliated Americans (81%), Catholics (72%), white mainline Protestants (69%) and black Protestants (59%).

Let’s not kid ourselves. There are plenty of religious people who oppose marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples. In fact, those who support the constitutional amendment that would define marriage as between one man and one woman in the state of Minnesota espouse almost exclusively religious arguments to support their position. But they by no means speak for all people of faith.

That’s why we’re getting organized! People of faith are at the heart of the movement for marriage equality in Minnesota, and our voices will be heard. On September 19, we will officially launch the faith-led effort to bring marriage equality to our state. We are building a broad, inclusive, multi-faith coalition — and we hope you’ll join us. See you on September 19!


To read Javen’s inspiring June 8, 2011, letter-to-the-editor of The Lake Country Echo and Pine River Journal, click here.


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Quote of the Day – September 3, 2011
• Catholic Attitudes on Gay and Lesbian Attitudes: An Overview
• A Catholic Statement of Support for Same-Sex Marriage
• Tips on Speaking as a Catholic in Support of Marriage Equality
• Responding to Bishop Tobin’s Remarks on Gay Marriage
• Jonathan Capehart: “Catholics Lead the Way on Same-Sex Marriage”
• Joseph Palacios: "The Church is Not the Victim"
• A Hopeful and Encouraging Trend
• In the Struggle for Marriage Equality, MN Catholics are Making a Difference by Changing Hearts and Minds

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

In Mychal Judge's Heart "There Was Room for Everybody"

Following are excerpts from Amy Goodman's TruthDig.com article, "9/11 Victim 0001: Father Mychal’s Message."

. . . Father Mychal was well known to the poor and afflicted of New York City and New Jersey. He helped the homeless, and people with HIV/AIDS. As a member of the Franciscan order, he would often wear the traditional brown robe and sandals. But there was a half-known secret about him: He was gay. In his private diaries, the revered Catholic priest wrote, “I thought of my gay self and how the people I meet never get to know me fully.” The diaries were given to journalist Michael Daly by Judge’s twin sister, Dympna, and appear in Daly’s book The Book of Mychal: The Surprising Life and Heroic Death of Father Mychal Judge.

Brendan Fay is a longtime Irish-American gay activist who was a friend of Judge’s. He produced a film about the Franciscan friar in 2006 called Saint of 9/11 and is finishing up another one called Remembering Mychal. Fay told me this week: “He was one of the priests at Dignity New York, an organization for gay and lesbian Catholics. . . . He ministered to [us] during the AIDS crisis, when there were few priests available to our community.”

. . . A decade later, Brendan Fay reflects on the life of his friend: “On 9/11, the one thing we can take from Mychal Judge is, in the midst of this hell and war and evil and violence, here is this man who directs us to another possible path as human beings: We can choose the path of compassion and nonviolence and reconciliation. Mychal Judge had a heart as big as New York. There was room for everybody. And I think that’s the lesson.”

– Amy Goodman
"9/11 Victim 0001: Father Mychal’s Message"
TruthDig.com
September 6, 2011

Recommended Off-site Links:
Fallen 9/11 Priest Emerges as An Icon for Gay Catholics – Daniel Burke (Religion News Service via The Progressive Catholic Voice, September 1, 2011).
A Judge for All – Cahir O’Doherty (IrishAbroad.com, August 21, 2011).
Saint Mychal Judge

Image 1: "Holy Passion Bearer Mychal Judge and Saint Francis" by Fr. William H. McNichols.
Image 2: Photographer unknown.
Image 3: Mychal with spouses Tom Moulton and Brendan Fay. (Photographer unknown.)

Good News from the Minnesota State Fair

. . . and, no, I'm not talking about the "glitter bombing" of the anti-marriage equality group, Minnesota for Marriage.

Rather, I'm referring to the results of a straw poll conducted at the great Minnesota Get-Together, results that have led the Minnesota Independent to declare that: "Minnesota fair-goers reject constitutional ban on same-sex marriage."

Yes, of the record 12,549 people who participated in the 2011 House of Representatives State Fair Poll, 66.5 percent said the state constitution should not be amended to define marriage as "only a union of one man and one woman," while 29.8 percent believe the constitution should be changed.

As most of my readers know, this question will be asked on the November 2012 ballot. Could Minnesota be the first state to defeat an anti-marriage equality ballot initiative? It's hard to say, but these results certainly bode well for such an outcome.

The poll, conducted by the nonpartisan MN House Public Information Services, is described as an "informal, unscientific survey of issues discussed in prior legislative sessions and may again be topics of discussion in 2012."

In his Minnesota Independent article about the poll results, Andy Birkey notes that:

Both sides of the debate over the amendment rallied their troops to the fair to vote in the poll. Minnesota for Marriage, which supports a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, and Minnesotans United for All Families, which opposes the amendment, sent email alerts to activists during the fair urging them to take the poll.

The poll had by far the highest turnout ever: 12,549 people took the poll compared to 9,926 last year.

Other controversial issues were on the poll this year as well. A slight majority favored requiring showing a photo identification in order to vote (50.8 to 46.4 percent), a majority objected to allowing the Legislature to call a special session (25.4 to 64.2 percent), and a slight majority approved of gambling expansion to generate new government revenue (51.6 to 40.1 percent).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Sharing the Good News of Marriage Equality at the Basilica Block Party
In the Struggle for Marriage Equality, MN Catholics are Making a Difference by Changing Hearts and Minds
NOM's Minnesota Battle Plan
Law Professor: Marriage Amendment is Divisive and Mean-Spirited
Winona Daily News Calls Proposed Marriage Amendment "Bigoted" and "Malicious"

Image: Michael J. Bayly (Minnesota State Fair, 2009).

Quote of the Day

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According to the Public Religion Research Institute, America is evenly divided on the issue of gay marriage: 47 percent favor its legalization while another 47 percent oppose it. . . . But strong preferences manifest themselves among religious groups. Unsurprisingly, about seven in 10 of those who aren't affiliated with any religion or who are affiliated with one other than Christianity support same-sex marriage. What is surprising is that a slim majority of Catholics and a similar-size majority of white mainline Protestants support gay marriage too. In contrast, 60 percent of black Protestants and 76 percent of white evangelicals are against its legalization.

The explanations for these cleavages can likely be found in nonreligious factors. Catholics in the U.S., for example, are more likely to live in urbanized states than evangelicals, predisposing them to adopting more socially liberal ideologies. The support gap between black and white mainline Protestants might be attributed in part to differing cultural pressures within those racial communities. What's nevertheless strange is that these Christian groups, with a few exceptions, mostly take a hardline stance against gay marriage, yet followers adhere to those stances at vastly different rates. But these religious differences may not matter so much in several generations: the main theme of the study was that younger people are supporting gay rights at much higher rates than their elders. It found "at least a 20-point generation gap" between 18 to 29 year olds and adults over 65 on every public policy issue concerning gay rights. And seven in 10 people in that younger age bracket say that religious groups that come out against homosexuality are alienating them.

– Dino Grandoni
"A Breakdown of Support of Gay Marriage by Religion"
The Atlantic Wire
August 31, 2011

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Steve Chapman: Time is On the Side of Gay Marriage
Catholic Attitudes on Gay and Lesbian Issues: An Overview
A Catholic Statement of Support for Same-Sex Marriage
Tips on Speaking as a Catholic in Support of Marriage Equality
Jonathan Capehart: Catholics Lead the Way on Same-Sex Marriage
Responding to Bishop Tobin's Remarks on Gay Marriage
The Bishops' Reaction to Marriage Equality: "Wrong-Headed and Counterproductive"
Catholic Author Richard Rodriguez on Why Churches Fear Gay Marriage
Quote of the Day – August 31, 2011
Quote of the Day – April 21, 2011

Recommended Off-site Links:
Most U.S. Catholics Back Civil Marriage for Gays – Lou Chibbaro Jr. (The Washington Blade, March 31, 2011).
Catholics More Supportive of Gay Rights Than General Public, Other Christians – Michael Sean Winters (National Catholic Reporter, March 22, 2011 – via The Progressive Catholic Voice).
U.S. Catholics Break with Church Hierarchy on Gay Relationships – Cathy Lynn Grossman (USA Today, March 23, 2011).
Census Reveals Gay People are Shockingly . . . Normal – Candace Chellew-Hodge (Religion Dispatches, September 4, 2011).

Out and About – August 2011

Above: The Catholic Coalition for Church Reform's third annual "Evening in the Park" fundraiser at Lake Elmo Park Reserve – August 2, 2011. Our keynote speaker was Diana Culbertson, O.P. (left) of FutureChurch. Diana spoke about the important role of conscience in the work of church reform.








Above: Friends Cheryl and Kathleen at CCCR's August 2 fundraiser. Kathleen is wearing a t-shirt from CCCR's 2010 Synod of the Baptized, while Cheryl is holding one cute little dog!

Right: With my friends Brent and Lisa who serve with me on the board of Catholics for Marriage Equality MN. Brent and Lisa also feature in the soon-to-be-released video series that spotlights a number of LGBT Catholic couples (both gay and straight) sharing stories of faith, marriage and family. The series will premiere on September 29 at the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis. Stay tuned for more information about this exciting event!


Left: Friends Theresa and William at CCCR's "Evening in the Park" fundraiser – May 2, 2011. William Hunt is a well-respected local theologian. To read his 2006 commentary on civil unions and Christian tradition, click here. For William's 2008 review of John T. Noonan, Jr.’s A Church That Can and Cannot Change: The Development of Catholic Moral Teaching, click here.




Above: A gathering of the Catholic Coalition for Church Reform (CCCR) – August 23, 2011.

CCCR's second annual Synod of the Baptized, entitled "Making Our Voices Heard," takes place on September 17, 2011, at the DoubleTree Hilton in Bloomington, MN.



Above: My friend and fellow CCCR co-chair Bernie Rodel – August 23, 2001.



Above: The backyard of the house I live in and caretake . . . after its makeover! How much of a makeover? Well, click here to find out!

Right: With my friend Al, the creative mastermind behind the makeover.

For images showing the progress of my "backyard makeover" throughout the month of August, see here, here, here and here.



Above: A portrait of my friend Greg.

Greg also played a major role in transforming the backyard.



Above and below: Working on the front yard!




Above: Ta-Dah!



Above: August 30 was my friends' Brian and Bob's birthday! Pictured with me celebrating in style at Pizza Luce in Uptown, Minneapolis, are (from right) Brian, Rick, Bob and John. Yes, gay guys out on the town!

Quote of the Day

I continue to believe that the [Supreme] Court will rule, five-to-four, in an opinion authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy, that laws prohibiting marriage equality violate the United States Constitution. Kennedy wrote the Court’s opinions in Romer v. Evans (1996) and Lawrence v. Texas (2003), and I think that he will see his longest-lasting legacy from over a quarter of a century on the Court being in the area of eliminating discrimination against gays and lesbians. I believe that his opinion will emphasize, as he did in Romer and Lawrence, the absence of any legitimate interest for prohibiting marriage by same-sex couples. As in Lawrence, and other opinions, he will point to the trend across the world.

– Erwin Chemerinsky
"Reflections on a Dialogue: Getting to Marriage Equality"
ScotusBlog.com
August 29, 2011

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Two Attorneys Discuss Same-Sex Marriage
Dale Carpenter on the "Win-Win" Reality of Gay Marriage

Image: University of California School of Law.

A Gay Catholic Man's Testimony of Courage and Grace: "God Made Me and Loves Me Just As I Am"

In a powerful op-ed in today's Star Tribune Ron Bates documents his journey growing up Catholic and gay.

I have to say that I believe it's the sharing of these types of stories that have the greatest impact on people's views on homosexuality and marriage equality. They're definitely changing hearts and minds. And to be sure, they are testimonies of courage and grace, and sharing them requires a brave vulnerability.

I mean, it's risky being that honest, and scary acknowledging to others the struggle, pain and missteps of one's journey to authenticity. But it's worth it.

I truly believe that the vast majority of people relate and respond positively to such vulnerability and honesty. Such qualities transcend sexual orientation. We all have to struggle in some way against forces that attempt to discount, belittle and/or deny aspects of our humanity. And people are making the connections: any type of discrimination is wrong; we all require self-acceptance and love to flourish.

Which brings me to another important point: the ability to say: "This is the way God made me and it is good!" is the most basic difference between being "gay" and being, in the words of the Vatican, "same-sex attracted." The profound damage, the spiritual violence, that is done to people when they are instructed to deny this ability to accept themselves, to love another sexually, and thus to grow and flourish as human becomings, is truly tragic. It's also a scandal, to be sure.

So, yes, I definitely recommend you read Ron's piece in its entirety. Following are those sections of it that most resonate with me.

_______________________________________

Born in rural Minnesota and raised on a dairy farm, I grew up in a devout Catholic family.

While attending St. John's Prep School in Collegeville, I confessed to a priest that I was attracted to another boy who slept across from me. The priest responded that if I ever acted on that, I would go to hell.

As a sincere Catholic teen, I did not act on my attraction but started a harmful journey of self-loathing and personal destruction. I didn't know what "homosexual" or "gay" were, but I understand "queer" and thought it was evil and perverted.

. . . For years and years, I would prostrate myself on the floor and ask God to change me. Maybe if I just pray more, fast more, do more "works of charity," the male attraction will go away.

After more than 30 years of trying to "burn" the evil out of me, I finally came out at age fifty four. God finally broke through to my heart of hearts and said, "I love you just as you are. You are praying for healing, but you are not sick!"

Our God does not change. God is God always. And God was with me always. After all the self-hatred and foibles of life, God was still there waiting for me.

At that moment, the shame and guilt I had felt for years left – once and for always. If Pope Benedict had been standing right there to tell me I was "disordered," I would have said to him, "You are wrong. God made me and loves me just as I am." . . .

– Ron Bates
"Growing Up Catholic and Gay in Minnesota"
Star Tribune
August 31, 2011

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Getting It Right
The Many Manifestations of God's Loving Embrace
Can You Hear Me, Yet, My Friend?
The Gifts of Homosexuality
The Many Forms of Courage
Celebrating Our Sanctifying Truth
Be Not Afraid, You Can Be Happy and Gay
Sons of the Church: The Witnessing of Gay Catholic Men – A Discussion Guide
Gay People and the Spiritual Life
The Challenge to Be Ourselves

Image: Artist unknown. (But I chose to entitle this work "Courage and Grace"!)

On the Issue of Contraception, the Catholic Clerical Caste Does Not Speak for "the Church," Let Alone "Religion"

Peter Laird, the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, has an op-ed in the August 26, 2011 issue of the Star Tribune. It focuses on the adoption by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services of a recommendation by the Institute of Medicine. As Laird points out, the adoption of this particular recommendation means that health care plans are now mandated to "cover contraceptives and sterilizations under regulations for preventive care." In other words, employer health insurance plans must now pay claims for birth control.

This is a "troubling" mandate for Laird. Why? Because the clerical caste of the Roman Catholic Church, of which Laird is a member and for which he speaks in an official capacity, "does not consider birth control a right of health care, much less a good for human flourishing."

What I actually find "troubling" is the headline the Star Tribune chose to give to Laird's op-ed: "Birth-Control Mandate Puts Religion in a Bind." Oh, really? Since when has the clerical caste of the Roman Catholic Church been elevated to represent all religion and all religious people? It's a stupid headline and the editorial board of the Star Tribune should have known better. It's not religion that's put in a "bind" but the Catholic clerical caste's teaching on contraception which, it should be noted, has been overwhelmingly rejected by the Catholic people and thus, one could say, the church as the people of God. Indeed, it would be more accurate to describe such teaching as "Vatican teaching" rather than "Catholic teaching."

Following are two letters-to-the-editor in response to Laird's piece and a number of comments that have been posted on the Star Tribune's website. They make for interesting reading!

________________________________

The Rev. Peter A. Laird, a high official of the local Catholic archdiocese, wrote that "the position of the Catholic Church on artificial birth control is well-known, though not always well-understood."

My experience, compared to his, could not be more antithetical.

When Pope Paul VI proclaimed his birth-control letter in July 1968, married couples knew all too well what it meant. They were shocked by a celibate's unilateral rejection of his own Birth Control Commission.

They were hurt, too, by the insensitivity of the teaching, and by the cold, calculating failure to allow modern science to help them regulate the size of their families. They declared the teaching dead on arrival.

The birth-control letter has led millions to abandon the church of their childhood. Most who remain practice birth control with a free and clear conscience, and they wisely ignore sporadic efforts such as Laird's to resuscitate this lifeless doctrine.

– Ed Kohler
St. Paul

Laird argues that "to suggest that one may without consequence use contraception in pursuit of human flourishing is manifestly contradicted by studies such as the one reported by the Guttmacher Institute showing that 54 percent of women who have had abortions have been using birth control."

He omits the report's further observations that, of those 54 percent, 76 percent of pill users and 49 percent of condom users had failed to use them consistently; that about half of unintended pregnancies occur among the 11 percent of women who are at risk for unintended pregnancies but are not using contraceptives, and that U.S. women who are not using contraceptives consistently account for 95 percent of the unintended pregnancies that occur each year.

– James Gaffney
St. Paul

SeaShark writes: Religious objections to the new standards are irrelevant; America is thankfully not a theocracy. The health plan's religious exemption is sufficient, and if the Rev. Peter Laird's interpretation of the exemption clause is correct and the clause isn't rewritten, then the Catholic Church will simply have to make another adjustment to existing in a democratic nation. Laird's attempt to seize the moral high ground in this discussion is unpersuasive; the Church surrendered whatever moral authority it may have once had decades ago when it decided to protect Catholic clergy who were sexually abusing and often assaulting children. Religious organizations or individual churches that want to lobby against the new standards should refrain from doing so unless and until they inform the IRS in writing that they voluntarily and permanently surrender their tax exempt status. Insurance coverage should not be influenced by or based on religious dogma. People who object to birth control on religious grounds are free to conform their sexual behavior to their religious beliefs: live a chaste life before marriage and refrain from practicing birth control after marriage.

CrystalBay writes: . . . The church not only is tax-exempt, it receives help from the government. Making birth control available through health insurance in no way forces anyone to utilize it. If the church wants to forgo the help of the government and become entirely insulated from the rest of society, then go ahead, but it can't have it both ways.

Orpheus90 writes: Hospitals and universities that have a religious affiliation may serve people without regard to religious affiliation, but Laird conveniently overlooks the fact that these organizations are also largely administered, staffed and run by people without regard to religious affiliation as well. Hospitals and universities, to my knowledge, do not apply religious tests to their prospective employees, certainly not if these organizations wish to maintain professional standing. The mandate to make birth control services available through health care coverage is based on the recognition of the individual's autonomy to make such choices for themselves and NOT on the preferences of the employer. In fact, there is a clear hint of something ominously oligarchic behind Laird's thinking, which is really nothing more than a form of corporate absolutism: specifically, that the corporate entity alone should determine the health care options made available to those who work for them. My response: No sale, Reverend.

Dubblea writes: This government directive is not ordering Catholic clinics to dispense birth control. It is ordering employer health insurance plans to pay claims for contraception. Catholic organizations have lots of workers, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, for whom they provide employee health benefits, evidently through insurers to whom this directive applies. Evidently they don't want their workers accessing benefits that they find to be anathema, whether the workers share in their beliefs or not. Now where our Padre has a point is that insurance claims are paid from members' contributions. So if he belongs to the same health care plan some itsy bitsy portion of his premium would in fact, shudder to think, be paying for some woman's birth control pills. Dang, talk about trying to micromanage what your money gets spent on. If he's that worried about indirectly paying for something immoral he should probably stop participating in the economy altogether. This one goes in the 'get a grip, or relax one' file.

This last commentator makes a really good point. The clerical caste isn't "troubled" in the least by the fact that, as U.S. taxpayers, we're all complicit in supporting and enabling a military-industrial complex that clearly runs counter to Jesus' example and call to be peacemakers. They've come up with all sorts of reasons to support militarism – and the charging of interest, another clear no-no from the earliest days of the Catholic tradition. And let's not forget the obscene wealth of the Vatican. How does that square with the simple life of Jesus of Nazareth and the egalitarian spirit of the early church?

Some argue that these types of "developments" are okay, and they'll cite all kinds of church decrees and documents to rationale them. One result is that you won't ever see anyone in a military uniform turned away from the Eucharistic table; not so anyone wearing a rainbow sash! (I'm not advocating the denying of Eucharist to military personnel, just highlighting our rather odd priorities when in comes to picking and choosing!) I do think that the glorification and support of war and violence is a clear betrayal of what Jesus lived and taught. Not so our evolution in thinking and teaching about gender and sexuality. There's lots of room there, I believe, for development; for taking into account the findings of science and people's lived experience and allowing them to shape church teaching. (After all, what did Jesus actually say about homosexuality?) Yet the clerical caste remains stubbornly resistant to such development. It therefore remains up to the Catholic people to lead the way; to discern and facilitate beyond the limited perspective of the hierarchy, the blossoming of liberating insights on matters related to gender and sexuality.


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Beyond the Hierarchy (Part 1)
Beyond the Hierarchy (Part 2)
Beyond the Hierarchy (Part 3)
Robert McClory on Humanae Vitae
Responding to Bishop Tobin's Remarks About Gay Marriage
Quote of the Day – August 3, 2011
Quote of the Day – July 7, 2011
John Dear on Celebrating the Birth of the Nonviolent Jesus
Christianity and Nagasaki
The Challenge of Peace

Image: Minnesota Public Radio/Sasha Aslanian (October 2010).

The Glimpse of His Face at Morning

I previously shared this image in a January 2007 post and noted that it's entitled “The Glimpse of His Face at Morning.”

It's actually composed of two images. The first is a photograph of my friend Greg that was taken twelve years ago in Minneapolis. The second photo of the sky was taken from Swallows' Ledge in Port Macquarie in December 2006.

The image's title paraphrases a line from “My Lagan Love” by Kate Bush. The lyrics of her version of this traditional folk song were written by her brother, John Carder Bush in the mid-1980s.

As sang by Kate Bush, “My Lagan Love” is a very haunting song – one which conveys a forlorn sense of loss. “Lagan” is an Old French, possibly Old Norse word meaning anything sunk in the sea (usually goods or wreckage), but attached to a buoy so that it may one day be recovered.

Of course, in matters of the human heart, such “recovery” is not always easy or even possible. Perhaps Kate sings of a drowned lover, or of a love grown cold and which cannot be rekindled. Whatever the case may be, there is undoubtedly a haunting quality to Kate Bush’s lyrics – a quality I’ve attempted to similarly convey in this particular image.

My Lagan Love

When rainy nights are soft with tears,
and autumn leaves are falling,
I hear his voice on tumbling waves
and no one there to hold me.

At evening's fall he watched me walk.
His heart was mine.
But my love was young and felt,
the world was not cruel, but kind.

Where Lagan's light fell on the hour,
I saw him far below me.
Just as the morning calmed the storm,
with no one there to hold him.

My loves have come, my loves have gone,
and nothing's left to warn me.
Save for a voice on the traveling wind,
and a glimpse of a face at morning.

– John Carder Bush

See also the previous Wild Reed post:
Everglades Exhibition

Image: Michael J. Bayly.

Quote of the Day

. . . The Vatican’s orthodoxy watchdog department, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has sharpened its focus on the way theology is being conducted in our church today. The purpose of the congregation is to uphold Catholic doctrine. The congregation, however, misconstrues its role when it becomes the arbiter of what constitutes Catholic theology, managing and even squelching discussions within the theological magisterium. Doctrine and theology should have separate places in the Catholic lexicon.

. . . Theology cannot be dictated – if it ever could be. It serves us best when it exists within the context of healthy discourse. We need free and open discourse to nurture Catholic ideas and Catholic engagement in the world today. This is why it is essential that journals like Theological Studies are free to support healthy discussions – and are not intimidated for engaging in them. Yet for more than a generation now our church’s hierarchy has stifled healthy theological give-and-take. Our church is less healthy for it. The primary areas of Vatican concern have been moral theology, liberation theology, and ecclesiology, including ordination and the role of women in the church.

. . . This has been a tragedy of historic proportions and it can be traced to a stilted understanding of natural law, and the interplay of faithful Catholics with the world in which they live. Church teachings on matters of sexuality (consider birth control) and moral theology (consider gays as “intrinsically disordered”) simply do not hold up for many faithful Catholics. Our church teachings have become divorced from human experience.

Eventually, many Catholics have simply decided to leave the church. According to a recent Pew Research Center report, for example, one out of three U.S.-born Catholics has left the church, many of them citing church teachings on sexuality.

More than ever we need robust theology; we need research, papers and discussions, which bring more life to the church. . . .

– Thomas C. Fox
"Retreat from Theology's Frontiers"
National Catholic Reporter
August 29, 2011

Recommended Off-site Links:
Vatican Pressures Theology Journal – Thomas C. Fox (National Catholic Reporter, August 29, 2011).
Theological Studies and Editorial Independence – Lisa Fullam (Commonweal, August 30, 2011).
"All Voices Must Be Heard": A Response to Archbishop Nienstedt – James Moudry (The Progressive Catholic Voice, July 25, 2011).
Richard Gaillardetz on the Need to "Wrestle with the Tradition" – The Progressive Catholic Voice (March 8, 2011).
Urgent Tasks for Church Renewal: A Review of Peter Phan's Wake Up Lazarus: On Catholic Renewal – Pierre Hegy (National Catholic Reporter via The Progressive Catholic Voice, August 17, 2011).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
The Call to Be Dialogical Catholics
From Rome to Minneapolis, Dialogue is What's Needed
Why the Bishops Are Being Ignored
Quote of the Day – July 2, 2011
Quote of the Day – June 12, 2011
Quote of the Day – April 26, 2011
Quote of the Day – March 26, 2011
Quote of the Day – March 20, 2011